The Wheatland News

• Crisis Response Parent Guide
• Guest Teachers
• 26-27 Enrollment

This is a document to help you when fire, tornado, or other drills are conducted, and your child may have questions. We conduct multiple drills throughout the school year, and you may find the document helpful.

GUEST TEACHERS

February has been a particularly rough month for filling teacher absences. If you are interested in becoming a guest (substitute) teacher, please contact the district office at 316-218-4660 or email Sherry at adamss@usd385.org. I am very grateful to have the guest teachers that we currently have. They have stepped up over and over to help support Wheatland. If you know a guest teacher, please take a moment to tell them how much they are appreciated!

26-27 ENROLLMENT

As we look ahead to next year, we are currently projecting three sections for each grade level. This aligns with broader national trends, as declining birth rates across the country have begun to impact school enrollments. It has been several years since our building operated with three sections across all grades. Open Enrollment has been a positive for Andover Public Schools, and we continue to have families apply to attend through that process. I am looking forward to the 26-27 school year!

Mar. 4 - WES Chess (Winter Learning Session), 3:45-4:30 in the library

Mar. 9 - AMS Counselors visiting 5th Grade, 2:00-3:30pm

Mar. 10 - PTO Slim Chicken's Give Back Night, 5:00-9:00pm

Mar. 11 - 3rd Gr. Peanutville Showcase, 2:45-3:15pm

Mar. 12 - End of 3rd Quarter

Mar. 13-20 - Spring Break

Mar. 24 - Kindergarten Preview Parent Meeting, 6:00pm in the WES Gym (parents only)

Mar. 25 - 4th Gr. StuCo Meeting, 3:45-4:30pm

Mar. 26 - 3rd Quarter Report Cards available in PowerSchool

Mar. 31 - PTO FFN Basket Wrapping followed by General Meeting, 6:00pm in the library

Spring is right around the corner, finally! We look forward to warmer weather, longer days, and playing outside more. March brings spring break (yay!), daylight savings time, St. Patrick’s Day, and lots of events at school. We have completed the Safer, Smarter, Kids curriculum and we’ll work on other character traits like courage, perseverance and integrity during counseling class.

The State Assessment testing window for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade opens the last week of March and continues into April. It’s important to make sure your student stays in a good routine, gets good rest, and eats a nutritious breakfast and lunch. In counseling class, we will discuss test anxiety and tips, tricks and techniques that can be used to help calm nerves before and during testing. Here is an article with good information about test (performance) anxiety and coping strategies. Of course there is no way to study for the State Assessments, but these tips can easily apply to other tests as well.

Lastly, our 3rd graders across the district will participate in the annual COWs (Careers On Wheels) event on May 1st. If you’d like to volunteer to come share your career expertise with small groups of students, please email me at raineyh@usd385.org. Watch for more information about COWs coming soon.

Book recommendation for March: The Collapse of Parenting by Leonard Sax

We are already starting to plan for the 2026-2027 school year! Thank you to everyone who filled out the Pre-Registration Form sent out in January. Your responses are very helpful for us as we plan for next year.

Moving?

If you will be moving this summer or your child will attend a different school next year, please let Claire know as soon as possible so the proper withdrawal process can be completed in May.

Incoming Kindergarten Students

If you filled out the Pre-Registration Form and entered your future kindergartner's information, you are on our list! Claire will send out emails once we get a bit closer to registration opening. If you have friends or neighbors who will have an incoming kindergartner, please encourage them to reach out to Claire at pruettc@usd385.org. Mark your calendar for our Kindergarten Preview Parent Meeting on Tuesday, March 24 from 6:00-7:00pm. This is a parents-only meeting. Children do not attend.

New Students

If you have friends or neighbors who plan on sending their students to Wheatland next year, please encourage them to email Claire at pruettc@usd385.org. Thanks for your help!

During February's meeting, 5th grade members created encouragement cards for Wheatland third - fifth graders for their upcoming State Assessments. They will be working on a kindness project for staff throughout the month as well.

During our March meeting, Student Council will begin promoting our Andover Food Bank Drive. Students will create and hang posters throughout the school to remind people of what they can bring to help our community. The class that brings in the most items will get an extra recess.

StuCo will be collecting pantry and hygiene items for the Andover Food Bank from April 1st to April 29th. Please make sure items are non-perishable and un-expired. Parents can look at the Andover United Methodist Church Facebook page for current needs and opportunities to volunteer time if they desire. Everyone thinks about giving during the holidays but the food bank gets pretty bare in the Spring and Summer. Our record has been 900 lbs. of food, let's see if we can beat that this year!

Meeting Date: 4th Grade members only - March 25th

First Student, which provides the district’s transportation service, has rolled out a new, improved FirstView App. This new app will allow enhanced, real-time tracking capabilities for all transportation services. If you have the FirstView Classic app on your phone, please delete it and download the FirstView 1.0 app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. You will need to use code D5F5F to access Andover’s information. If you have Transportation issues you can call First Student at (316) 247-1926.

If your student will be absent for any reason, you must notify the WES Office. Please email Claire at pruettc@usd385.org or call the office at (316) 218-4820 to report any absence. Simply notifying your student's teacher does not mean the message is received in the office and your student may be marked incorrectly. If your student will be absent for 4 or more days in a row, you must fill out a Pre-Planned Extended Absence Form and return it to your child's teacher.

If you need to make a change to your child's method of transportation after school, you must notify the office no later than 3:00PM. If possible, please try to keep changes to a minimum. Frequent changes cause confusion for students. If the office has not received notification of a change, your child will be sent home via the method they usually take. Additionally, if you are signing out your child at the end of the day, please do not pick up your student after 3:15PM if at all possible.

Upcoming PTO Events:

• Tuesday, March 10 - Slim Chickens Give Back Night (Greenwich Location), 5:00-9:00pm
• Tuesday, March 31 - FFN Basket Wrapping & PTO Meeting, 6:00-8:00pm
• Friday, April 10 - Family Fun Night, 6:00-7:45pm